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Holmes County Sheriff Tim Brown thanks the first responders and citizens that assisted in locating a missing three year old boy this past Friday afternoon in the Westville area of Holmes County.

The call came into the Sheriff’s Office at approximately 2:31 p.m. indicating that the toddler had walked away from his residence with the family’s two dogs. Upon arrival, investigators learned that the toddler had been missing for almost two hours and the family’s effort to locate him produced only the boy’s footprints in a wooded area. The toddler’s wet clothing was soon located and concern of the searchers intensified. As the search continued Capt. Bennett with the Sheriff’s Office, who was in the wooded area, advised via radio that bloodhounds were needed at his location as he had located the child’s fresh foot prints along with tracks from the child’s pets in a dim road. Bloodhounds from Holmes Correctional Institution responded to Capt. Bennett’s location and the prison tracking dog quickly indicated that the child had recently transitioned the area. Moments later, to everyone’s relief Capt. Bennett announced over the radio that the child was located and was uninjured. The child was missing for over three hours and had traveled approximately three miles through the woods.

In response to this positive outcome, Sheriff Tim Brown said “this is one of those times when everyone comes together to assist quickly and the results were outstanding. I was afraid for the child when I arrived because of the dense woods and ponds in the area and we were running out of daylight". Sheriff Brown wanted to offer his thanks to everyone involved in the search as well as those persons and agencies that were in route to assist when the child was located.